The China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) is a multipurpose panel survey that has followed more than 19,000 individual in 216 communities throughout China from 1989 to 2006. This survey collects data on occupations, incomes, and benefits of working-age household members; time use; diet and nutritional status; activities of daily living, health status, and use of health services; marriages and pregnancies of reproductive- age women; household size and composition; living arrangements; care of children and elders; housing conditions; land ownership; and household expenditures. Individual health related data are highly detailed, and include carefully measured dietary intake, physical activity, smoking and drinking data, anthropometrics, blood pressure and limited clinical data from all respondents. Because of its long duration and wide geographic coverage, the CHNS can document the dramatic economic, social, behavioral and health status changes which have characterized China in the past several decades. The existing data represent a resource of enormous value to the population, health, and social science research and policy communities. Newly linked longitudinal files have contributed to a rapid increase in the last 3 years of the user base for these data. In 2007, there were over 1840 registered users. We propose to further enhance the value of this unique survey by adding rounds of data collection in 2009 and 2011 and expanding the scope of the survey to include, for the first time, collection of fasting blood samples (on all children and adults aged 2 and older) for analysis of disease-related biomarkers and DNA, toenail and blood spot samples, and geographic data to permit spatial analysis. An array of biomarkers related to nutrition, heart disease, diabetes and inflammation and stress will be assayed and results will be available for public use. We propose to store DNA and frozen blood samples, toenail and blood spot samples for outside researchers to access, to provide access to our collection of added spatial data and linkage of other data. While we have seen in each of the last 3 years a doubling of users of these data, these new changes will make the CHNS increasingly valuable to scholars. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) is a multipurpose panel survey that has followed more than 19,000 individual in 216 communities throughout China from 1989 to 2006. This survey collects data on occupations, incomes, and benefits of working-age household members; time use; diet and nutritional status; activities of daily living, health status, and use of health services; marriages and pregnancies of reproductive- age women; household size and composition; living arrangements; care of children and elders; housing conditions; land ownership; and household expenditures. Individual health related data are highly detailed, and include carefully measured dietary intake, physical activity, smoking and drinking data, anthropometrics, blood pressure and limited clinical data from all respondents. We propose to further enhance the value of this unique survey by adding rounds of data collection in 2009 and 2011 and expanding the scope of the survey to include, for the first time, collection of fasting blood samples (on all children and adults aged 2 and older) for analysis of disease-related biomarkers and DNA, toenail and blood spot samples, and geographic data to permit spatial analysis.